Théodore Lévigne, The Hunt, 1884

Théodore Lévigne was born in 1848 in Noirétable (Loire) and died on November 11, 1912 in Lyon. In 1856, his father, a bootmaker and shoemaker, came to settle in Lyon in the Saint-Jean district. Young Théodore entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon at the age of twelve. In 1863, at the age of fifteen, he was awarded the school's highest distinction: the Golden Laurel. Receiving a scholarship from the City of Lyon, he decided to join the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and lived in the 6th arrondissement. When the Franco-Prussian War broke out, he enlisted and was wounded in the left hand during a battle at Nuits-Saint-Georges. He would later paint many war scenes. In 1893, he joined his brother Léon at the Arche farm in Saint-Romain-au-Mont-d'Or to share their common passion in a bucolic setting. Here Lévigne's work shows us a moment of rest for dogs and hunters after a hunt. There is a certain aestheticism in this painting: the attitude of the two men, the decorum of nature and the twilight light which fades into the background of the canvas, make this painting a true masterpiece of representation. hunting. Indeed, the 19th century maintains nostalgia for the hunting of the Ancien Régime and considers that its golden age would be located between the accession of the Marquis de Dampierre to the functions of first huntsman of Louis XV and the French Revolution.